PODCAST · society
Empowerment Studio Podcast
by Kinzie Elizabeth - The Empowerment Photographer
Welcome to our Empowerment Studio podcast! Join Kinzie Elizabeth (they/she) and Rachael Cady (she/her) as they introduce you to a space where real conversations take center stage. Broadcasting from the Empowerment Studio, a boudoir photography studio in Kansas City, MO, this episode sets the tone for what you can expect in future conversations. Kinzie and Rachael emphasize the importance of creating a comfortable environment where vulnerable topics around bodies, pleasure, and self-expression can be openly explored. Together, and with incredible guests, they aim to normalize conversations that society often shies away from, inviting listeners to engage with these essential topics in a supportive and empowering way. Tune in and discover the journey ahead!
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061: Do it bad. Do it crying. Do it scared. Do it messy.
Most of us are stuck in a cycle we don't even realize we're in. There's a little whisper -- that "what if things could be different" feeling. Then we explore it. We get excited. We maybe even figure out the next step. And then... we talk ourselves out of it. And we settle back into "this is fine."And then the whisper comes back. And we do it again.In this episode, we talk about why doubt isn't a stop sign, why being "really busy" can actually be one of the sneakiest ways to stay stuck, and what it looks like to build real proof (PROOF!) that you're capable of change. The thing is, it's not always gonna be cute. Sometimes we have to do it messy, do it scared, or do it imperfectly. The important thing is that we do it at all.I first talked about this concept in our F*ck Confidence workshop. The day after the workshop, I started getting texts: I'm stuck in the whisper stage and I already know I'm probably going to do the same thing I always do.This episode is for those people. Which is probably most of us.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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060: The Honest Breakup Text Nobody Taught You How to Send
You keep ghosting people because you don't know what else to do. What if we stopped that??In this episode, we're getting into the stuff nobody teaches you about honest communication in dating -- including how to decline a second date without making someone feel like they failed an audition, and why "let's just be friends" is sometimes... not actually what either person wants.We also got into what it's like to date as a trans woman: the fetishization, the safety calculations, the exhausting math of when to disclose.And I introduced one of my favorite communication principles: Prepared For No. PFN, babyyyyy (introduced is maybe a strong word, I'm sure you've heard me say it a lot before). If you're not already using this in your relationships, your asks, your whole life: this episode might change that!BONUS: we're dabbling in the concept of a brand new call-in segment for your dating, polyam, and relationship questions. If you're into it: DM us on Instagram at @empowermentstudio__ (or our BRAND NEW podcast IG @fckconfidence) with a voice note. We're going to answer your Qs on air (and Rachael and I will almost certainly disagree, so you'll get two perspectives!) and let that guide us into some new fun conversations around connecting and relationship.Thanks for tuning in, y'all!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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059: Why Being “Strong on Your Own” Is Keeping You Stuck -- with theatre artist Angela Marcum (my mom!)
If empowerment feels harder than it should, the problem might not be you; it might be isolation.We've got an incredibly special guest for this episode -- someone who deeply shaped the way I move through the world. I would like to heartily welcome theatre artist and community builder, Angela Marcum (she/her) -- who also happens to be my mom!In this episode, we talk about where my belief in beauty and community actually comes from, and how those values got built long before the Empowerment Studio ever existed.This is a conversation about being seen. About building spaces where people feel like they belong. About why doing it alone isn’t actually the goal.The way you build community changes everything -- and we were never meant to do this alone!The apple doesn't fall far from the tree on this one, folks. This is a fun episode to tune into if you want to see where it all began.To contact our guest (in case you want to collaborate with her!) -- https://angelamarcum.com/🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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058: You’re Allowed to Want Things (Desire Isn’t Selfish!)
This episode is a bit of a peek behind the curtain -- we’re right in the middle of running a series of North Star workshops in the Empowerment Experience as we are publishing this episode. It's been so fun!Inside the program, we’ve always set a North Star -- a vision for what you want your life to feel like and where you want to point your compass for the six months of the program. What I started noticing is how much is actually inside that process. “What do I want?” can open up a lottttt.So we're creating even more space for it.The North Star Workshop is now a 3-part experience to help you:get clear on where you are right nowbe radically honest about what you actually wantturn that into a clear direction you can move towardIt also brings in something I’m calling practice menus -- ways to take action whether you have five minutes and no energy, or a full afternoon with more capacity. We're aiming to make it feel really achievable to actually begin to make the changes you are craving in your life.This started as a nerdy, late-night idea and is now becoming a deeper layer of the program. I’m really curious to see what it opens up for people. So far it's been really powerful. Lots more to come, I can't wait to update you once we've completed the whole workshop series!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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057: Showing Up Without Burning Out -- A Tarot-Inspired Reflection
This episode is being published in a moment where our government is actively contributing to violence and harm on a global scale.And while we recorded this a couple months ago… that’s also not new.This isn’t a one-time moment. It’s a pattern. It’s ongoing.Which means the question becomes: how do we stay present, resourced, and able to actually show up inside of it?So in this episode, Rachael and I pulled tarot for you.Which led us into a conversation about what it looks like to step out of constant urgency mode without disconnecting, how to let time and space do some of the work instead of muscling your way through everything, and why small moments of celebration and care aren’t a distraction but actually fuel (then it becomes up to us for how we decide to use that fuel - but if we're resourced, we can do a lot with that!).We also share a simple practice (we each name six things we’re celebrating) that ended up being way more grounding than expected -- let us know if you give it a try at home. (And DM me the things you're celebrating, if you want to!! I'd LOVE to see -- goodness knows we could all use a little moment to steep in the good these days.)🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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056: Stop Waiting to Like Your Body Before You Let Yourself Be Seen
In this episode, Rachael (she/her) and I (Kinzie, they/she, hey pals!) are diving into what it actually means to take up space in your body -- especially when it doesn’t look or feel the way you want it to.Christina, in our Empowerment Studio community, submitted a question that unfolded into this podcast. We talk about the difference between taking up space energetically versus physically, and how being in your body can feel like a completely different challenge than just showing up in a room. A lot of people are waiting to feel confident before they allow themselves to be seen, photographed, or celebrated -- which keeps you stuck. What if not that?? So we talk about how to start seeing yourself differently, how to build from neutrality instead of confidence, and how small moments of noticing can begin to shift your relationship with your body over time.Throughout the episode, we share our own experiences with shrinking, swinging between “too much” and “not enough,” and learning how to find a version of taking up space that actually feels aligned instead of performative.Taking up space isn’t about loving your body all the time. It’s about learning how to stay in it -- and letting that be enough to start.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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055: A Nonbinary Participant’s Empowerment Experience: Identity, Community, and Self-Discovery
In this episode, my lovely cohost Rachael and I talk with Sarah Staat (yes, they're back!) about their journey with the Empowerment Studio -- from their first photoshoot to going all-in during the Empowerment Experience.Sarah grew up in a very religious environment where a lot of life decisions were already mapped out for them. Over time, especially after a divorce, they began the long process of figuring out who they actually were outside of that structure. They first found the Empowerment Studio through one of our selfie challenges, and over the years became a deeply involved part of the community.During the Empowerment Experience, Sarah used the space to explore identity more fully -- including trying out they/them pronouns and embracing the full range of their masculine and femme expression. By the time we photographed their big Empowerment Experience shoot, they were stepping into that range completely: everything from a suit, to a bikini, to a flannel-and-axe lumberjack moment in the woods.One of the things Sarah talks about beautifully is how the program gave them a place where they didn’t have to edit themself. Over the six months, that practice of simply being themself started to carry into the rest of their life too.We also talk about the community side of the Empowerment Experience -- the group photoshoot, the friendships that form, and the way people witness each other’s growth over time.Sarah describes the whole experience as an investment in themself, and as a way of capturing the moment of who they are now.PS This episode title is reductive for sure -- but I wanted all the cutie enby folks who might be podcast browsing to know that they've got a fun episode to tune in to. It's nice to know when something is extra perfect for you!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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054: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Empowerment Experience
In this episode, Rachael and I (Kinzie) talk through the actual structure of the Empowerment Experience. We’ve talked a lot on the podcast about the transformations that can happen in this program, but I realized some people might be wondering: what do the six months actually look like?So we walk through the arc of the experience -- from the welcome party and early connection-building, to Selfie Week and our guided group selfie practice, to the monthly Togetherness Times where we make space for play, creativity, and community. We also talk about the Empowerment Party, individual photoshoots, and the final celebration where everyone gets to see their images together at the end of the program.One of the things I share is that the Empowerment Experience isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about choosing your own “win condition” and deciding how you want to show up for yourself over the six months.If you’ve been curious about the Empowerment Experience but wondering what you’d actually be stepping into, this episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how the program works and why the structure is designed the way it is.Doors are technically only open to the Empowerment Experience for one more day - but this episode was supposed to go out earlier this week and didn't (oops!) - so if you're seeing this and it's after the application window is open, but before the end of March, apply anyways (mention this podcast!) and I'll sneak ya in!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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053: F*ck Confidence [Workshop Replay]
This episode is a replay of the live F*ck Confidence Workshop -- it was one of those sessions where the energy in the room was just different. (I loved it so much, y'all! I truly think this was our best workshop yet!)People were having "oh sh*t" moments all over the place. The kind where something clicks and you can't un-hear it, and you've changed. Participants had breakthroughs mid-conversation, got a little uncomfortable (in the best way), and walked away seeing themselves differently than when they showed up.And I know that sounds like it could have been a heavy night -- but it was SO joy-filled. We wiggled, we laughed, we had a genuinely good time. Communityyyy. The kind of space where you can be messy and feel totally held.Here's the thing this workshop is built around: confidence is not actually what you're missing. And chasing it is keeping you stuck. In this replay, we dig into what's really going on, and how you can start getting what you want right now, without waiting until you feel "ready."You'll also get a full overview of the Empowerment Experience: what it is, who it's for, and why it might be exactly what you've been looking for.If something in this episode makes you go oh dang, that's me, that's your sign. You can apply here: https://empowermentphotographer.com/experience or send me (Kinzie) a DM here if you want to chat about it: @empowermentstudio__I hope you give this a listen. You deserve amazing things, and this will help make them happen. We love you!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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052: F*ck Confidence
I'm just gonna go ahead and say it:Fuck confidence!In this episode, Rachael and I unpack something that’s been simmering since our January team retreat at the Empowerment Studio. Libby and David and I were talking about the boudoir industry at large -- what people promise, what they sell, what they center -- and one word kept coming up:Confidence.Build your confidence.Find your confidence.Come in confident.Leave confident.But here’s the problem: the number one thing I hear from people who want to book a session but don’t is, “I’m just not confident enough.”And here's what I'd like to offer: what if confidence isn’t the prerequisite?What if you don’t have to feel ready?What if you don’t have to feel bold or secure or certain?What if you get to show up nervous, uncertain, even a little shaky -- and do it anyway?Rachael talks about working on her first play and carrying a literal clipboard as a stand-in for confidence. We talk about doing things before we feel qualified. We talk about how the doing itself is often what creates the shift.What are you postponing because you’re waiting to feel more confident first?What conversations? What risks? What visibility? What joy?Especially right now, in a world that requires more courage from regular people, waiting for perfect confidence might be the very thing keeping us small.This episode plants a seed for the rest of the season. You’ll hear threads of this concept woven through future conversations -- about power, visibility, voice, embodiment, and taking up space.You don’t need confidence to begin.You begin. And confidence (maybe) follows. (And if it doesn't, THAT'S OKAY!)If this sparks something in you, I want to hear about it. Where have you been waiting to feel ready?We're not holding back anything in Season 2 of this podcast. LFGGGGGG.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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051: Season 2 is HERE and We Have Things to Tell You
We're baaaaack, babyyyyy! Y'ALL, WE MISSED YOU!If you're new to the podcast, welcome! And if you're returning, OMG HI. This episode is one of my favorite types -- a long, cozy conversation between two people who genuinely like each other. We've got a lot to catch up on!My amazing cohost Rachael (she/her) and I (Kinzie, they/she) sat down to kick off season 2 of this podcast, and we ended up talking about everything happening inside the Empowerment Studio, which turned into getting excited about what's coming (Cloud Parties! the Empowerment Experience! the Facebook group is open!), which turned into the kind of episode you really can't rush.So don't try to. This one's made for a long drive, a sink full of dishes, a walk where you lose track of how far you've gone. Or: a cup of something warm, a craft project, and an hour where you just get to exist and listen.This is us, settling back in. I hope it feels like coming home a little bit. We saved you a seat.Season 2 -- let's gooooo.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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050: Season One Finale - we're so glad you're here!
In this season finale (whaaaaat?!), Rachael (she/her) and I sit down to reflect honestly on how this podcast began, what it turned into, and the unexpected ways it has shifted us along the way. We revisit the early conversations that sparked the idea, the quiet moments where we wondered if anyone would listen, and the episodes that changed the direction of the Empowerment Studio without us even planning it.We share stories we haven’t told before... the behind-the-scenes chaos, the small victories, the moments that cracked something open for us, and the themes that kept weaving themselves through the season no matter what we thought we were talking about. Empowerment, growth, visibility, choosing yourself again and again. In a lot of ways, the podcast became its own version of the Empowerment Experience.We also look ahead to Season Two and the kind of space we want to build inside the Empowerment Studio next year. What stays. What deepens. What we’re excited to experiment with. And, honestly, what we’re still figuring out.The conversation feels like sitting down with us after closing time at the Empowerment Studio... warm, reflective, a little funny, a little messy, and full of the kind of connection that happens when you actually say the true thing out loud.We close with gratitude and an invitation: take a moment to notice who you’ve become since the start of this season. You may be farther along than you think.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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049: Studio Updates and Surprises -- A Peek at 2026
Hey Empowerment Studio, my co-host Rachael (she/her) and I took some time to catch up on everything happening in the Empowerment Studio as we step into 2026. We talk Early Bird enrollment for the next round of the Empowerment Experience, why our free mini sessions through mid-December are worth grabbing, and how the moment you say yes to joining us can start shifting your energy long before the program begins.Behind the scenes, we peek at our winter break plans, the return of our Facebook group in January, and the new modular sets being built by our artist-in-residence -- from bubble rigs to mermaid moments to old Hollywood feather robes. We also dive into the creative expansion these sets make possible, plus the upcoming add-ons, Empowerment Parties, selfie stations, and the “happy idea” energy guiding the Studio as we explore what magic awaits us in 2026.This short, cozy episode is full of updates, big ideas, and a sense of playful possibility -- perfect for anyone curious about what’s next in the Empowerment Studio.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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048: From Deconstruction to Embodiment -- and how we can do 6 years of Empowerment in 6 Months in the Empowerment Studio
Audy Avery is baaa-aaaack! (Yes!!) And this time we got together to talk about Audy’s transformation inside the Empowerment Studio -- how, over six years of hanging in our orbit and participating in all our shenanigans (ya know, selfies, mini sessions, cozy events, and our beautiful, kind community), Audy’s done some incredibly deep, beautiful work around embodiment, visibility, and joy.Somewhere along the way, Audy and I realized that what took Audy years to unfold naturally in our community is now happening in a condensed, intentional way through the Empowerment Experience -- we effectively created a shortcut to the same magic. NEAT.We talk about what it means to see yourself, to feel safe being visible, and how fun, anti-capitalist joy can be the most powerful kind of transformation.Find Audy on Instagram: @audyaveryyyyAnd follow their writing here: open.substack.com/pub/audyavery/Learn more about the Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com/experience (and if you apply now and enroll before the end of 2025, you'll get a free mini session to do any time between now and when the program begins in April!)🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: Glamour Magic with Jacqueline Gates
In this live conversation, Jacqueline Gates and I discuss how Glamour Magic has completely changed her life (and the lives of SO many people who are fortunate to work with Jacqueline, either by participating in her community or if they've hired her as a coach).This recording picks up in the second half of our live session -- in the first half, we tuned into Jacqueline’s video on Glamour Magic (which is absolutely worth catching if you haven’t yet -- the link is below).We talk about the ways Jacqueline practices Glamour Magic as a tool for self-expression, evolution, and play -- and we explore how it weaves beautifully into the work we do here at the Empowerment Studio.✨ Watch Jacqueline’s original Glamour Magic video here: https://youtu.be/u45V1egX3_o?si=IzpoV8b1W-29aO1F✨ This episode is part of our Empowerment Festival series. Learn more about the Empowerment Festival (and be the first to hear when we announce our next one!) here: empowermentphotographer.com/festival🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: The Power of Showing Up -- On Visibility and Being Seen with Jamie Byers
"If I'm not vulnerable with you, how will you connect with me."Our beloved friend Jamie Byers (she/her) is the founder of:1️⃣ Plump Resale (a curated thrift experience that helps every body, especially plus-size folks, find their personal style),2️⃣ The Byers Effect (her intuitive energy-work practice blending grounding, sound, and magic), and3️⃣ Jamie Byers graphic + web design for artists, dreamers, and small businesses doing good things in the world-- all based right here in Kansas City.Jamie joined us for a live podcast recording that really just feels like sitting in on a coffee chat between two passionate besties!Come hang with Jamie and Kinzie as they talk about visibility, taking up space, and what it means to be show the fuck up in your business and your life.You can find Jamie here (@just.jamieb) and here (@plump.resale) and here (@thebyerseffect).Do yourself a favor and follow all three accounts because Jamie is GREAT.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: Hearth Tending: A Mindful Morning Ritual for Body, (Neurodivergent) Brain, and Spirit with Ellie Berland
This moment together with Ellie feels like a slow sunrise -- tender, intentional, and full of heart.My sweet and powerful friend Ellie Berland (she/her) -- founder of HERA (@hera_co_) -- helped us welcome in our day with a beautiful and grounding ritual. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join us.Ellie began with a gentle reflection that connected us with our brains and our bodies and our hearts before guiding a breath of life practice to help us connect with our days. From there, she pulled a card and invited us to listen deeply -- to what our bodies were asking for, what our brains were asking for, and how we might honor both in the day ahead.You might want to save this podcast to your phone so that you can come back to it again and again. What a lovely way to start the day.You can find Ellie on Instagram at @ellena_berland and @hera_co_🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: Accessibility, Disability, and Community Care with Libby
Our Beloved Libby spent her Saturday morning with us Live in the Empowerment Festival. A little meal prep, a cup of coffee, and a lot of discussion on living as a disabled person in the US. This conversation is strong and powerful and fun and cute and helpful. I strongly recommend digging into this one.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: Inside the Client Lingerie Closet with Kinzie and David
This live was very much more visual than audio (so I HIGHLY recommend joining our facebook group so you can watch the replay there.) That said, if you want to just hang out with us you're ALWAYS welcome to! This would be a great podcast episode to throw on in the background, as if we're just in the next room hanging out with you (hooray for body-doubling!)!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: Mood Boards, Gender Feels, and Vampire Teeth -- Exploring Identity Through Pinterest and Personal Style
Hey Empowerment Studio, it’s Kinzie Elizabeth -- and today, Rachael and I are going full-on Pinterest-core. No, this episode isn’t sponsored by Pinterest (though honestly, maybe it should be? Pinterest, you out there?), but it is part of our Empowerment Studio Festival lineup -- a whole collection of events and moments designed to help you explore, play, and reconnect with yourself in creative ways.This one’s all about how I use Pinterest as a powerful tool for style evolution, self-discovery, and vibing with who I’m becoming next.Rachael came in as a total Pinterest skeptic, and by the end of this episode, she was at the very least lukewarm to the idea -- maybe even all in (lol you'll have to ask her). Together we build her very first Pinterest boards -- from “Empowered Rachael” to “Rocker Rachael” -- and talk about how personal style shifts can reflect deeper identity and empowerment.We explore how fashion can be fluid, gender expression can be playful, and why sometimes you just need to let yourself pin the things that make you go ooh. It’s chaotic, funny, a little slumber-party energy, and a lot of self-exploration in digital collage form.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: Move and Muse with Kinzie
Movement to create Movement! Its time to dance a bit and journal a bit! Take some deep breaths and dive in with us!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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FESTIVAL: Step Into Your Magic. A Festival Welcome GRWM with Kinzie and David
Oh Hai Empowerment Studio! David here! Here's our Empowerment Festival kick-off: a cozy GRWM with David and Kinzie! Pour a cup of coffee, or a tasty bevo of your choice, and hang out with us as we talk all things Festival, with some meal prep, neurodivergent calendar planning, and deep breaths thrown in for good measure.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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047: Your Guide to the Empowerment Festival
Heyyyyy Empowerment Studio, it’s Kinzie Elizabeth -- and the Empowerment Festival is here! In this solo episode, I’m giving you the full rundown of what’s happening October 9–11 (plus our wrap-up on the 14th) so you know exactly what to expect and how to join in.I’ll walk you through each day’s theme -- Ground, Revel, Own, and Witness -- and share all the ways you can participate, whether you’re here in Kansas City or joining from anywhere in the world. This festival came together fast, and it already feels like pure magic. So grab your calendar, mark the dates, and let’s get ready to show up for ourselves, take up space, and celebrate together.Sign up here: http://empowermentphotographer.com/festival🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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046: The Myth of the Perfect Moment
In this episode, Rachael and I dive into the myth of the perfect moment. So often I hear people say they’ll book a boudoir session -- or join the Empowerment Experience -- once they’ve lost weight, saved more money, or feel “ready.” But the truth is: waiting for the “perfect” moment often keeps you stuck.We talk about how confidence doesn’t magically appear beforehand -- it’s something that grows because you do the thing. We also explore how documenting yourself right now, in the body and stage you’re in, builds a muscle of self-love that carries into every future version of you.Rachael shares vulnerably about her own boudoir sessions with me -- one during an earlier stage of her gender transition, and another after gender confirmation surgery. Seeing herself reflected at both moments gave her an anchor point for who she was becoming and reminded her that her growth was real.We also touch on the realities of finances, societal pressure, and the internalized muscle of self-criticism. This episode encourages you to stop waiting and take action even if it doesn’t feel “perfect.”🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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045: The Empowerment Studio Festival Is Here! (Mark your calendars, y'all. This is gonna be FUN!)
The Empowerment Studio is doing something brand new -- we're hosting our very first Empowerment Studio Festival! From October 9–11, 2025, we’re bringing together three days of connection, play, and joyful embodiment both online and in-person in Kansas City. Expect cozy coffee chats, a c@nnabis meditation, live interviews, giveaways, a dance party (my DJ Kinzie debut!), and even some brand-new Empowerment Studio merch. This festival is a taste of how the Empowerment Experience feels -- a chance to move, laugh, breathe, and play together in community.Come hang out with us online in our pop-up Facebook group, or in-person at the Empowerment Studio. Get the full scoop, snag a VIP ticket, and add your name to the guest list at empowermentphotographer.com/festival.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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044: Ask Me About My Bean (and Investing in Yourself Even When It’s Terrifying)
If you’ve ever been curious about the support I receive behind the scenes of running this business, if you're scared to take a leap to invest in yourself, or just want to hear me get real about why I’m practicing what I preach inside the Empowerment Studio, I hope you'll tune in to this episode!This week we're pulling back the curtain -- because I just signed up with a new business coach! 🎉 In this episode, Rachael and I chat about what it actually feels like to invest in yourself (especially when it feels big and scary), why group coaching is so powerful (and sometimes messy, wheeeee!), and how magnetizing the exact right people at the right time has been a game-changer in my life.We also veer off into some very important tangents: like my new productivity app (thanks Hank Green), what it means when your clothes suddenly stop feeling like you (Pinterest episode coming to a podcast near you one of these days!), and why I’m so dang passionate about creating spaces where people can try things out messily and still feel supported.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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043: Bigger Pants, Bigger Energy -- Radical Permission for Everyday Life
ONCE AGAIN, Rachael and I started recording an episode thinking it would be kind of cute and quaint and silly. And then it ended up getting kind of deep. #onbrand In this episode, we pass the mic back and forth and hand out radical permission slips for y'all. Wanna exist in photos without changing a damn thing about yourself first? Permission granted. Wanna wear bigger pants that actually fit? Dare ya. Wanna look silly on the dance floor, take a nap instead of muscling through, or just show up as today’s version of you? You're allowed!! DM me at @empowermentstudio__ to tell me which permission slip you are snagging (or if there's another specific one you found yourself hoping we'd say next). 🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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042: Kinzie + Rachael Reunite -- Haircuts, Cruise Ships & Big Life Shifts
We’re back, baby! After two months apart, Rachael and I are finally in the studio together again -- new haircuts, big stories, and a whole lot of laughs (Rachael and I love a good chat!).Rachael spent the summer on a cruise ship that was still being built -- which means she’s got wild tales about isolation, construction zones, and how a ship gets lifted out of the ocean. She also shared about feeling out of sync with her clothes and vibe, and what it’s like to have this feeling that it's time to step into a whole new version of yourself (but to not necessarily know what version of yourself that is).Meanwhile, my summer was its own whirlwind -- parenting, travel, and running the Empowerment Studio (and our EPIC Selfie Challenge + Model Call!) -- so it felt extra good to land back in this creative space together.This episode is a mix of reunion joy, transformation vibes, and a little cruise-ship nerdery. Come hang out with us -- it feels so good to be back.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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041: Getting the chance to PLAY and feeling totally welcome as they are -- Client interview with Sarah
Throwback episode! This interview with my client Sarah from 2023 was too good to not share with y'all over here on the podcast. But the funny thing is, at the start of the interview, I told you that we’re having a half-off session fee sale (2023 edition) and so we’re doing a half-off session fee sale (2025 edition)! Hehe. Our repurposing is your gain, as the saying goes! And now... onto the episode!"I wanna live here forever. I just wanna live in these wings. I want to live as this superhuman forever. It was just so empowering and so FUN!" Sarah and I had the best time talking together! We talked about how a boudoir session is a chance to PLAY! They told me how good it felt to tap into an incredibly empowered version of themself.... and now they get to take that vibe home with them, and have photos to look back on to help them come back to that version of themself. Sarah also told me how comfortable they felt the whole time, showing up as the fullest version of themself. "Be ready to have a great time. It's an investment, and it's worth every single penny. Do it for you, don't do it for anyone else. This going to be something you remember for the rest of your life, and you're not gonna regret a single moment."This was such a great conversation. Enjoy!!🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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040: Rebecca Black Made Me Do It and other stories from Hinterland
Heyyyy y'all, I just got back from Hinterland Music Festival in Iowa and it was SUCH a good weekend. Perfect weather, rad neighbors, queer vibes all around.I am now newly obsessed with Rebecca Black (she was hot and gay during her daytime set -- and vibey and magnetic at her midnight DJ set) and may or may not have cut my bangs while peering into a 3" camping mirror a couple days after seeing her perform (this decision was premeditated, but seeing hot perfect her bangs were during her DJ set late at night was absolutely the catalyst for making it happen WHILE I was camping, lol).Tyler the Creator's set was also so potent and I'm very inspired by his merch. I love a weird and all-in creative concept.There's lots more about Hinterland in this episode, but also a lot of Empowerment Studio future-dreaming out loud (you’ll have to listen to find out what that's all about). I always come back so inspired and I have a feeling the Hinter-magic is really just beginning to unfold. Lots of tiny moments cracked something open in me -- and I'm so curious how it's all going to shake out.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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039: You Asked for More Gramma Iris -- Random Questions, Mini Muffins, and Choosing Joy
Y’all loved her before -- and guess what? She’s back!!Gramma Iris returns to the pod, and this time it’s pure JOY. We’re talking recipes, stories, advice, favorite outfits, and everything in between. She’s 90 years old, fabulous as can be, and somehow even more iconic than last time.We recorded this one in person with my amazing co-host (hi, Rachael!), and it felt like a cozy kitchen table hangout full of laughter, memories, and a whole lot of love.You’ll hear:-- our favorite family recipes-- how Gramma Iris makes friends literally everywhere-- her go-to outfit for Target trips (recorded before we started boycotting Target, just to be clear!)-- her thoughts on aging, joy, and staying curious-- and the questions she wished we’d asked her last time!Honestly, this episode feels like a hug in audio form -- and it’s a reminder that it’s never too late to be playful, connected, and fully yourself.(I love you, Gramma! Thank you for being here!!)🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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038: You’re Beautiful, I Don’t Want to Bone You, and That’s Fine with Audy Avery
The more polished title for this episode might be something like Audy Avery on Being Gray Ace, Gray Romantic, and Deeply Human -- but the one we landed on is probably more apt for this particular episode's vibe.One of our favorite podcast guests is back! I got to sit down with one of my dearest humans, Audy Avery (they/them), and talk about something we don’t hear nearly enough about: asexuality and aromanticism, in all their layered, nuanced, and beautifully fluid forms. Rachael (she/her) popped in too (as she does), and honestly, it felt like a big warm return to the Empowerment Studio After Dark days -- the vibe was cozy, intimate, campfire-y. My favorite kind.Audy shared their unfolding journey of realizing they’re on the ace and aro spectrums, and how that discovery has reshaped how they understand their body, their relationships, and their own self-consent. We talked about sex, the differences between libido and attraction, and the subtle but powerful ways we can show up more honestly in our desire -- or lack of it. I especially loved the part where Audy talked about being “romantic with life” and inviting others into that energy without needing to call it something traditional.This conversation made space for a kind of radical softness -- for people who experience attraction differently, for those of us still unpacking purity culture, and for anyone exploring embodiment on their own timeline.Whether you identify as ace or not, there’s something here for everyone -- a reminder that attraction, desire, and romance don’t need to follow a script. They can just be yours.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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037: Coming Out as Trans at 50 -- Rachael’s Transition Story
Heyyyyy babes, we're back! It's been a couple of extra busy weeks in the Empowerment Studio what with Pride month (aka Gay Busy Season™) and the Selfie Challenge and the Model Call. So I guess we took an inadvertent summer break. And now it's time for a new episode! And oh my, what a treat this one is.This week on the Empowerment Studio Podcast, I sit down with my co-host, friend, and longtime Empowerment Studio member Rachael Cady to talk about her transition journey. Rachael shares the deeply personal, powerful story of coming out as a trans woman in her 50s -- including the first time she let herself imagine a different life, and her coming-out moment at work (which is a really fun and beautiful story!).We talk about permission, identity, hormones, vulnerability, second puberty, joy, and the long arc of becoming more fully yourself. I’m so honored to hold space for this story -- and I hope you love it as much as I do.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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036: Model Call applications are open! (Don’t wait to feel ready -- boudoir is what helps you get there!)
Our annual Model Call is OPEN! Come hang out with us in the Empowerment Studio, do a boudoir session, and feel just how much it can change your life.You don’t have to feel confident to do a boudoir session -- honestly, I usually find that my clients need the session in order to become confident. (Wild, right? We have it all backwards!)In this episode, I’m joined by happiness coach Jessica Lyonford (she/her) for a really powerful conversation about confidence, body image, and how our brains are actually wired to change. We talk about neuroplasticity -- how our brains create new pathways over time -- and how intentional experiences (like a boudoir shoot!) can become anchors that help shift the way we see ourselves.Jessica shared so many beautiful insights about building trust with yourself, releasing perfectionism, and why confidence isn’t something you have to have before you start -- it’s something that can grow through action.✨ And if this conversation speaks to you: the Empowerment Studio’s Model Call is open now through Friday, July 11 at 11:59 PM central. Come apply if you’re ready to take that first brave, beautiful step: https://empowermentphotographer.com/applyYou can find Jessica Lyonford at: www.jessicalyonford.comhttps://www.instagram.com/themorehappycoachhttps://www.facebook.com/projectmorehappy🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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Selfie Week: 🎧 Day 5 -- Flow Pose + Your Next Big Leap (Model Call Details Inside) #SelfietoSelfLove
What a week. Today we’re celebrating everything you’ve created during this challenge -- the selfies, the compliments, the courage. I also introduced our Model Call for folks who feel ready to take this to the next level. And as a bonus, I’m bringing back one of the very first recordings I ever made: a guided Flow Pose to ground and connect with your body before your final selfie.✨ “You are on a really big journey right now, learning your body in new ways... and that’s a really big deal.”Thank you for being here -- you are so beautiful.APPLY FOR OUR MODEL CALL HERE! 🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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Selfie Week: 🎧 Day 4 -- The Compliment Mindset #SelfietoSelfLove
We’re really in the flow now. Today, I invite everyone to take an intentional moment with the compliments you’ve been receiving -- to let them land, even if just a little. There’s no pressure to fully believe them yet -- just practice staying open.✨ “Maybe instead you say, thank you. You appreciate the curve of my hips. I can receive that.”Give a compliment, receive a compliment, and let yourself take one tiny step further into that magic today.And for fun, here's a blog post with some Empowerment Studio compliment tips! https://empowermentphotographer.com/blog/compliments-101-intersectional-empowerment-style🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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Selfie Week: 🎧 Day 3 -- Stretchy, Vulnerable, Playful #SelfietoSelfLove
It's Day 3 of our #SelfietoSelfLove Selfie Challenge! This is one of my favorite days of the challenge -- it tends to feel a little more vulnerable, a little more growthy, and also super full of potential. If you're feeling daunted, that’s okay. Today’s about letting in some fun and support wherever you can -- music, movement, moisturizer, a friend cheering you on while you click the shutter.✨ “Giving those compliments to other people can be a fortifying process for you as well.”Once you post your selfie, stick around and leave a few kind words for others. It really does make a difference.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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Selfie Week: 🎧 Day 2 -- Golden Light, Grounded Body #SelfietoSelfLove
Ooooh this one's fun. I had chills while I was recording it, I remember feeling so deeply that I was talking directly to all of you!! For Day 2 of the Selfie Challenge, I guided a calming, grounding meditation to help you ease into taking your selfie. We breathed, imagined warm golden light filling our bodies, and connected with ourselves before picking up the camera.✨ “Maybe we’re not going for a perfect final image—maybe we’re just setting out with the intention of existing in some photos.”Go post your Day 2 selfie in the group when you're ready.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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Selfie Week: 🎧 Day 1 -- The One Where You Just Start aka Quantity over Quality #SelfietoSelfLove
Welcome to Day 1 of the Selfie Challenge! This episode sets the tone for the whole week -- no pressure, no perfection, just showing up exactly as you are. It's literally about focusing on quantity when you think you might actually be supposed to focus on quality.(If this is the first you're hearing about our Selfie to Self Love 5-day Challenge, it's not too late to join! selfietoselflove.com)I’ll walk you through how to take today’s selfies without overthinking them, help you trust the process, and I'll hype you up to take a ridiculous number of photos without stopping to nitpick.Don’t peek too soon. Don’t talk yourself out of it. This is your invitation to meet your own cutie face—with curiosity, courage, and maybe even a little joy.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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035: Your Invitation to the 2025 Selfie to Self Love Challenge
I'm inviting you -- yes, you -- into something joyful, low-pressure, and potentially transformative: the Selfie to Self Love Challenge.In this episode, I (Kinzie, they/she!) and my radiant co-host Rachael (she/her) share what this challenge is, why we do it, and how it has changed lives -- including our own. Whether you’ve never taken a selfie before, or you're a seasoned self-portrait pro, this is your invitation to show up, be seen, and maybe even surprise yourself.It’s not just about posting a photo. It’s about claiming space in community, receiving and giving genuine compliments, and existing in photos on your own terms. This is about togetherness, joy, play, and that specific kind of magic that happens when we all show up at the same time for something.Come hang out with us from June 23–27, and let’s take some selfies together. And if you're nervous???? I promise you -- we've got you! Let’s see what shows up when you show up.Sign up for FREE at selfietoselflove.com🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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034: Empowerment Runs in the Family -- 90 year old Gramma Iris on the Mic
This episode is a true gift.I got to sit down in person with my beloved Gramma Iris — yes, my actual grandma — and talk about life, legacy, growth, and the power of sharing our stories. At 90 years old, Gramma Iris has lived through loss, transformation, deep love, and reinvention more times than I can count. And lately, she did something really brave: she stepped on stage for the very first time to perform a piece about her life as part of The She Said Project, directed by the wonderful Jenette Jurczyk.In this conversation, she talks about what it felt like to tell her story for the first time just about her — without hiding behind the people she’s spent her life loving and serving. She shares memories from growing up in a conservative small town, teaching preschool (after retiring five times!), baking mini muffins, and still showing up for her community — with a little sass and a lot of heart.We laugh, we sing, and she even performs her piece for you — “90 Years in 10 Minutes.” (Spoiler alert: you're going to want tissues.)💗 You can watch her full That’s What She Said performance on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtmZCc2KSZ4Gramma Iris is the person I’m probably the most like in my whole family — and I am so proud to share her with you today.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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033: Stretch Marks, Gold Paint, and Self-Love (Happy Pride!) -- Client Spotlight with Eda
In this first Pride Month* episode of the Empowerment Studio Podcast, we’re joined by our longtime supporter, community member, and total superfan: Eda (short for Edalyn, they/them). Eda just completed a boudoir photo shoot in the Empowerment Studio that was years in the making—and this conversation is a reflection of everything it meant to them.But for real, y'all: this session had me emotional too. Eda was one of the very first people I photographed when I started my photography business back in 2012/2013. Knowing Eda all those years ago, and seeing them blossom into a beautiful, capable grown-ass human has been a treasure - and getting to celebrate them in the form of a boudoir session, where we really got to make our magic together, was the most special thing. Here in the Empowerment Studio, we talk about the beauty of timing, claiming space as a queer and gender-fluid person, and what it felt like to adorn stretch marks and tan lines in gold as a celebration of a body that’s been through so much and keeps going. Eda shares the emotional arc of their session—from pre-shoot anxiety to post-shoot journaling and baby bunny symbolism—all wrapped in love, laughter, and a touch of chaos (like any good quad ball match).If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to step into a session at the Empowerment Studio, especially as a queer client, this episode is a beautiful peek inside. And if you’ve been waiting for a sign that your shoot might be right on time—this is it.You can find Eda on IG at @hadeschica5sos (and, go take a peek for real, because they recorded their love letter to themself that they wrote before their session at my prompting and it's honestly the most beautiful thing)*And yes: happy pride, queerdos! It's honestly always PRIDE around here, you know that if you've been hanging around with us for any stretch of time. But we don't mind the extra chance to celebrate and take up space and honor our history and remember that we're all in this together.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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032: Deep Dive with Audy Avery -- On Tarot, Transitions, and Tending to Yourself
This week, I’m joined by the luminous Audy Avery (they/them) for a heart-full fireside chat on tarot spreads, life upheavals, and the slow rebuild toward creative possibility.We go month-by-month through Audy’s year-ahead tarot pull—what landed, what surprised us, and how the cards have offered reflection, insight, and sometimes straight-up warnings 😅 (January and February, we’re looking at you).✨ If you're tarot-curious, witchy-aligned, or just navigating a lot right now and wondering how the pieces might someday fit together again—this one’s for you. We talk about grief, polyamory, solo parenting, creative rebirth, and living in radical partnership with your own life.🪵 We also reflect on what it means to build a deeply local, offline life of magic and care—the kind of life where your community knows your rhythms and your gifts ripple outward from your doorstep, not your feed.This episode was an indulgent exploration. Do you do year-ahead tarot pulls? If you do -- tag us! We’d love to see it.You can find Audy ..... well, mostly in person in Kansas City (and you can hire them for a porch chat or a guided 🌿 meditation) but also over on IG (@audyaveryyy) and Substack (breath + blood + bone)🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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031: Gadzooks! Hot Takes and Soft Questions with Kinzie and Rachael
This podcast episode is as silly and fun as the title of the show—because honestly, what else would you expect from me and Rachael at this point?In this one, we go full shenanigans mode with a mix of spicy hot takes and tender little soft questions. You’ll hear about my deep love for Love is Blind (Rachael had never heard of it!!), the joys of Sims cheat codes and heart-shaped vibrating beds, and the gender euphoria of catching your own reflection and saying, “Oh yeah, that’s me.”We talked weird compliments (someone once told me I’m easy to take my clothes off in front of—professionally speaking, of course), the magic of toggling between your identities like a theatre kid with range, and how our comfort shows weirdly tell on us. (Looking at you, Star Trek.)Oh—and we get a little deeper than planned, because of course we do. Gender journeys, embracing past versions of ourselves, and how our identities shift in big and small ways over time. So, basically: laughter, queerness, weird compliments, nostalgic chaos, and soft landing pads for self-discovery.It’s one of those episodes where you laugh hard and leave thinking.💌 If you want to get in on the fun, DM me your answers to any of the questions we ask—comfort shows, Sims must-haves, or what you believed five years ago that’s totally changed. And send me pics of your Sims love beds if you dare.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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030: What's REALLY happening in the Empowerment Experience (and mix tapes, gender joy, and reality TV)
Okay, so this one has everything: trans joy, vision boards, awkward laughter, photo shoot magic, an enthusiastic reality TV debate (Love Is Blind, I <3 you), and a new twist on the concept of North Stars that I didn’t even know I needed. Rachael and I dove into all things Empowerment Experience -- Round Two and the gorgeous, human messiness that comes with creating something like this... and participating in it.Also: I make the case for vision boards (and yes, even if you’re allergic to crafting, I just might convince you), we gush over mixed CDs, I reveal my secret DJ dreams, and we celebrate the incredible range of identities and gender diversity in this cohort of the program.The Empowerment Experience isn’t just six months of selfies and photoshoots -- it’s this alive, evolving, co-created thing that lights me all the way up.Also yes, I’m recruiting more people to talk Love Is Blind with me. Please. @empowermentstudio__🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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029: Self-Love Starts with a Selfie (No, Really)
Y’all, we are kicking off another Selfie Challenge this summer and this episode is your official backstage pass and hype session all in one. I sat down with Rachael to talk about why we’re doing this challenge, what it actually means to exist in photos, and how something as simple as taking a selfie can lead to huge shifts in how you see yourself.We get into the real stuff -- like how showing up in front of a camera (even when it’s just your front-facing phone) can be deeply vulnerable, wildly powerful, and even... fun? Yes, fun. There’s laughter, a little sidebar story time (as always), and some stories from my pre-Empowerment Studio life -- turns out singing “Wheels on the Bus” to 12 babies at a daycare was the perfect foreshadowing of me singing encouragements to my grown-up clients now 😆This episode is an invitation to join us in our next round of the Selfie to Self Love 5-Day Challenge (it's free!). The challenge is all about reclaiming your image on your own terms. It’s not about filters or perfection—it's about you, showing up for yourself one photo at a time. Whether you’re selfie-curious, a selfie-pro, or selfie-resistant, this challenge, and this episode, is for you.👉 And if your curiosity is piqued (or you already know you want in), head to selfietoselflove.com to sign up. You’ll be the first to hear when the next challenge dates are announced. (It'll be sometime this summer!)Trust me, you don’t want to miss it.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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028: Grief isn't Linear; Pass the Avocado Toast
In this episode of the Empowerment Studio Podcast, I’m joined by my dear friend Rachael for a heartfelt and real conversation, where grief, laughter, and community care all sit at the same table.Rachael shares the story of losing her mom and the complex, layered experience of moving through grief -- from the bittersweet moments of caregiving to the unexpected gifts of being truly seen and loved.We reflect together on how we can better show up for people who are grieving (hint: bring the avocado toast!), why vague offers like "let me know if you need anything" aren’t always the most helpful, and how important it is to be specific, to show up, and to say all the things — even when it feels scary or awkward.This conversation is about big feelings, real friendship, chosen family, and living with your heart wide open. Bring some tissues — and maybe a sandwich.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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027: From Peanut Butter to Polyamory – Queer Home Logistics
This episode dives into the surprisingly juicy world of dishes—but trust, it’s more than suds and soap. Kinzie and Donnie (partner, co-parent, collaborator, and all-around rad human) unpack how their neurodivergent household navigates shared chores, weirdly effective emoji codes, and the art of creative domestic systems. From redefining who does what in the kitchen to rethinking room layouts and supporting each other’s bandwidth dips, it’s part polyamory logistics, part home organization inspo, part love letter to gentle communication.Bonus moments:Donnie is a rainbow-clad handyman dreamboat.“Respect the X” becomes a rallying cry for calendar boundaries.Foldies (PB&J tortillas) are a household staple.There’s a monocle emoji code for “hey, check the kitchen.”Their 8-year-old is already out here naming overstimulation and skipping birthday parties with grace.Overall? It’s like a cozy hangout where doing the dishes becomes a metaphor for care, clarity, and coexisting with deep intention.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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026: Visibility is a Love Language
In this episode, Rachael Cady (she/her) and I (Kinzie, they/she 🙋🏻♀️) hit record mid-ramble (as usual) while we were talking about that quiet inner glow that helps you hold space for yourself and the people you care about.We cover a lot of ground: the ripple effects of a boudoir session (because it’s so much more than just a few cute photos), how music and memory and even the most random, silly moments can become anchor points for coming back to yourself later. Rachael shares what it meant to see one of her Empowerment Studio portraits posted on Trans Day of Visibility—and how those photos have helped her not just feel seen, but actually see herself.There’s talk of selfies, sponge metaphors (yep, really), nervous laughter, and my accidental superpower of creating experiences that quietly sneak up and change your life. And we explored what it takes to slow down and notice what's happening so you can really savor the moment.If you’ve ever wondered how to keep that post-photo-shoot glow alive in everyday life, this one’s for you.🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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025: "We Need to Talk" (but make it cute) -- A Polyam Relationship Conversation using RADAR
This week, I’m bringing you into a real-life moment: my partner Donnie and I hit a tough patch—one of those stretches where feelings pile up, miscommunications swirl, and connection feels just out of reach. We knew we needed to talk… but we didn’t want to just spiral.Enter: RADAR.It’s a conversation structure we learned from the amazing folks at Multiamory, and honestly? It was a game changer. In this episode, I’m sharing what RADAR is, how we used it, and why it felt so nourishing, supportive, and grounding. Whether you're navigating polyamory, partnership, roommates, or anything in between, this framework might just be the communication tool you didn’t know you needed.Listen in for some tenderness, honesty, and a little reminder that hard conversations don’t have to be messy—they can actually bring you closer.P.S.: We first learned about RADAR from Multiamory, and they have an awesome breakdown of how to use it—plus a full podcast episode on the topic. If you want to explore more or try it out with your people, check out their page right here: https://www.multiamory.com/radar🤳🏼 Get our FREE selfie guide: https://empowermentphotographer.com/selfie🔗 Sign up for the #SelfietoSelfLove Challenge: selfietoselflove.com📸 Follow us on Instagram: @empowermentstudio__🌐 Learn more about our boudoir sessions and Empowerment Experience: empowermentphotographer.com👥 Join our Facebook Group: The Empowerment Studio
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to our Empowerment Studio podcast! Join Kinzie Elizabeth (they/she) and Rachael Cady (she/her) as they introduce you to a space where real conversations take center stage. Broadcasting from the Empowerment Studio, a boudoir photography studio in Kansas City, MO, this episode sets the tone for what you can expect in future conversations. Kinzie and Rachael emphasize the importance of creating a comfortable environment where vulnerable topics around bodies, pleasure, and self-expression can be openly explored. Together, and with incredible guests, they aim to normalize conversations that society often shies away from, inviting listeners to engage with these essential topics in a supportive and empowering way. Tune in and discover the journey ahead!
HOSTED BY
Kinzie Elizabeth - The Empowerment Photographer
CATEGORIES
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